Library Live

Peterloo in Sound
2019-06-22 15:30 - 18:30 UTC | Performance Space
Sound as Being will present ‘Peterloo in Sound’ a 5.1 sound composition by Mark Pilkington inspired by a historical event that came to be known as ‘The Peterloo Massacre’, that happened in Manchester, England on the 16th August, 1819.
The sound material consists of location recordings captured from student protests held in Manchester 2010 and the rural the setting of Maccelesfield Forest, Cheshire in 2010. Historical transcriptions and archive sound recordings were gathered with the help of Prof. Robert Poole of the University of Central Lancashire, The Peoples History Museum, Manchester, The North West Sound Archive and the British Library. The text transcriptions provided a narrative framework to structure the electroacousitc sounds. The soundscape recordings were sonically transformed using a computer and spatially arranged within a 5.1 loud speaker array.
The spatial aspect of the composition considers the listeners position, reception and inclusion. Realised at NOVARS Research Centre, the University of Manches
Free – booking recommended

Peterloo Now: AI and the Fourth Industrial Revolution
2019-06-25 17:30 - 19:00 | Performance Space
Manchester Histories, in partnership with the University of Manchester and the Guardian, our panel, which includes Professor Deborah Howcroft, will be discussing the fourth industrial revolution and asking whether the rise in artificial intelligence will lead to a new wave of social unrest.
In 1819, St Peter’s Field was packed with working class Mancunians who were demanding political representation as a means of addressing the hardships they were facing in the world’s first industrial city. A few decades earlier, the same workers were caught up in Luddite riots, fearful of the role that the march of technology might have on their jobs and livelihoods.
Today, we hear that in the fourth industrial revolution, AI will irreversibly transform the world of work for the 21st century, threatening the jobs of many in the workforce. Indeed, many jobs have already been permanently altered or replaced in favour of advanced technology, and the institutions whose technology is slow to advance, such as the NHS, suffer.
What will happen to the companies that cannot afford to advance their technology? Will their workers be safeguarded against the threat of AI, or is it a ticking clock of inevitability? 200 years after the Peterloo massacre, should we be ready for mass protest as people fight for their right to a decent wage and place of work?
Running time: 90 minutes, no interval.
This event is part of a series called Peterloo Now. Other events in this series:

Tuesday 11 June: The roots of protest in 2019
Tuesday 18 June: The gaps in representation
Tuesday 2 July: Is devolution the way to a healthier democracy?

Image: Robotic farmers in agriculture spray chemical fertiliser. Photograph: Sompong Sriphet/EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm

Our Town Hall Project - the transformation
2019-06-27 13:00 - 2019-06-29 17:00
Timescales: next steps
Meet the Team and find out more
We’re now onto the next stage of the renovations, partial restoration and refurbishment of The Town Hall, and are inviting interested parties to see what we’ve got planned. Come and meet some of the project team and find out how we’re going to tackle this fabulous challenge, at our Meet the Team events in Central Library on:

Thursday 27 June, 1pm to 7pm
Friday 28 June, 1pm to 5pm
Saturday 29 June, 10am to 2pm

We’ll be right next to the lifts on the Lower Ground Floor. Drawings and illustrations will be on display to give a good sense of how the building itself will be improved, and how Albert Square will be revitalised at the same time: the work will make sure that the space and its facilities are updated, and fit to continue at the heart of Manchester; as a key focus for events, celebrations and times that we, as a city, feel the need to come together.
Free – please drop by

Our Sam, The Middleton Man
2019-06-27 17:00 - 19:00 | Performance Space
Our Sam follows the story of a teenager, Samantha (a secret poet), who travels around her home Town of Middleton observing and writing of the exclusion and voicelessness of the other young girls she sees. On her travels she learns of Samuel Bamford, the radical, reformer and writer who was born in Middleton in 1788. While reading Bamford’s books ‘Early Years’ and ‘Passages in the Life of a Radical’ Bamford appears to Samantha and through a series of discussions, we learn about life in Middleton 200 years ago, poverty, hunger and riots brought on by the ‘Corn Laws’ and industrialisation, the fight for representation of the Working Class in Parliament and the Peterloo Massacre. With Sam’s encouragement that ‘there’s strength in Unity lass” Samantha brings together the Towns teenagers to find a way they can represent themselves in a positive way to the adult World but Samantha, like Bamford, finds the road to reform a treacherous one.
The film screening will be followed by a Q&A
Free – booking required

Peterloo 1819-2019 - A Talk by Robert Poole
2019-06-28 14:00 - 15:00 | Performance Space
A timely illustrated lecture on the Peterloo massacre of 1819, with the emphasis on new findings and on connections with the local area.
Robert Poole Professor of History at the University of Central Lancashire, author of the new book Peterloo: the English Uprising, co-author of the graphic novel Peterloo: Witnesses to a Massacre, and consultant historian to the Peterloo 2019 programme.
Free – booking required

Peterloo - Te Read, to Hear, to Feel
2019-06-29 14:00 - 15:00 | Performance Space
We will perform dramatic readings from a book called Mules Masters and Mud by local author G.J.Griffiths. Graham captures the Zeitgeist of the times and will read from a chapter covering events on the day of Peterloo. Local folk group Trebuchet will perform traditional and contemporary music and songs, marking key events of the era.
As an exhibition piece we will be displaying mill art with an interpretation . These pieces are interactive and can be handled but are a talking point for before and after the session. This is a table top display.
Free – please drop in

Peterloo Now: Is Devolution the Way to a Healthier Democracy?
2019-07-02 17:30 - 19:00 | Performance Space
In partnership with the University of Manchester and the Guardian, join our panel chaired by Guardian northern editor Helen Pidd and including Professor Andy Westwood and Lisa Nandy MP, as they discuss the devolution of government and its impact on the future of our democracy.
In 2018, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said, “Devolution is not just a series of technical changes to the machinery of government. It has had a profoundly positive effect on the culture of our city-region. It has created a new energy; a sense of possibility; a shaft of light in an otherwise gloomy political sense.”
Is it true that devolution, as Burnham suggests, has invigorated our democracy and led to a more representative and represented Manchester? Or is it a project that is merely papering over the cracks of a deeply divided Britain?
This event is part of a series called Peterloo Now. Other events in this series:

Tuesday 11 June: The roots of protest in 2019
Tuesday 18 June: The gaps in representation
Tuesday 25 June: AI and the fourth industrial revolution

Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP)TOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Generation Revolution
2019-07-04 17:30 - 19:30 | Performance Space
As part of this years Peterloo bicentenary, the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre invite you to a screening of Generation Revolution, a feature-length documentary film that brings to screen the powerful story of London’s new generation of black and brown activists who are set on changing the social and political landscape in the capital and beyond.

People’s Landscapes – Unearthing Passion and Protest
2019-07-06 12:00 - 16:00 | Performance Space
Developed out of their work at local National Trust properties with a connection to Peterloo, artists Grace Surman, Gary Winters and their children will lead a creative family workshop exploring ideas around collective action, democracy and children’s rights. Expect craft-based activities, discussion on what you think matters, personalised portraits and banging a drum.
This commission has been supported using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England and with additional support from Art Fund.
This event is part of the National Trust’s People’s Landscapes programme, exploring the role our own places have played in social change.
This is a family event, all children to be accompanied by a participating parent/adult.
Part of Trust New Art, the National Trust’s programme of contemporary arts
Learn more about Peterloo and the National Trust
Learn more about People’s Landcapes
Learn more about the two new films are inspired by protest, rights and responsibilities
Drop in sessions: 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm
The drop-in events begin on the hour and last for approximately 40minutes.
Free – booking recommended

Prostest in the Surveillance State: The East German Jewish Dissident Stefan Heym
2019-07-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Performance Space
This talk traces strategies of civil disobedience in Cold War Eastern Germany through the case of the German Jewish dissident Stefan Heym. Born into a German-Jewish family in Chemnitz (now notorious for its recent outbreaks of Far Right violence) in 1913, Heym was an early sympathiser of the Communist Party. He fled from Nazi Germany in 1933 and spent his year’s of exile in Czechoslovakia and the US, serving during WWII as a US Army intelligence officer. He settled in East Germany in 1952, where he witnessed the unfolding of the antisemitic Stalinist show trials in Prague and East Berlin, and subsequently became disenchanted with state socialism (but never the communist idea itself). As well as being an internationally renowned writer, Heym was a life-long advocate of social justice and personal freedom and witness of the 20th struggle for these ideals.

Peterloo Film Screening
2019-07-11 13:00 - 16:00 | Performance Space
Join us for relaxed screenings of the Peterloo Film every month from June – August.
The Peterloo Massacre was a defining moment in British democracy which also played a significant role in the founding of The Guardian newspaper. Written and directed by Mike Leigh, Peterloo is an epic portrayal of the events surrounding the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manchester turned into one of the bloodiest and most notorious episodes in British history. Each month we’ll be screening Mike Leigh’s Peterloo to mark 200 years since this watershed moment.
Pay what you can – £3 / £5 / £8

Speaking Out!
2019-07-11 17:30 - 19:30 | Performance Space
Journalist Bob Dickinson introduces a selection from films made by the Workers Film Association, formerly based in Lucy Street, Hulme.
The film clips show the diversity of the WFA’s interests, their commitment to the history of the Afro-Caribbean and South Asian communities, their response to political events of the 1980s and 90s, and the importance of several of their films as oral history. From Eddie Frow’s memories of The National Unemployed Workers Union and the Battle of Bexley Square in 1931, to Viraj Mendis speaking from inside the church where he took refuge for two years during his fight to stop the government deporting him, to Buzzcocks founder member, the late great Pete Shelley, describing why punk rock in Manchester was so different – discover why there is a wealth of people’s history to be seen and heard in what the WFA left behind. A discussion follows the films. Watch a trailer here

Ballads and Songs of Peterloo, with Dr Alison Morgan
2019-07-12 14:00 - 15:00 | Performance Space
Ballads and Songs of Peterloo by Dr Alison Morgan is based on her unique collection of more than seventy poems and ballads which highlight the outrage, grief, defiance and resolution felt by labouring-class people in the immediate aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre in which eighteen people were killed and more than 600 injured as they listened to the radical Henry Hunt speak on the need for electoral reform.
Alison’s talk focuses on a selection of these poems and songs which were circulated in radical journals and performed at markets and in taverns, highlighting how they aimed to keep a true record of the day in the public consciousness and counter the official government narrative. The talk will be illustrated by audio recordings from musicians who have worked with Alison to bring these important and entertaining songs to life once more.
Free – please drop in

Trace Your Peterloo People
2019-07-13 10:00 - 16:00
Join us in a full day of discovery at our Peterloo focused genealogy open day. Book a 30 minute 1-1 session with a member of the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society (MLFHS) and delve into the wealth of resources to start you off on your own family tree, or help break through a brick wall in your research.

Michala Hulme, professional genealogist and historian at Manchester Metropolitan University, will bring to life stories of modern day descendants of Peterloo witnesses, tracing links over 200 years of family history. Join Michala’s masterclass for expert guidance in furthering your own research or explore the amazing library building on a special tour with a member of the library team, including a visit to the vaults!
Tour of the Library and Vaults:
10am – Book Now
12.30pm – Book Now
2.30pm – Book Now
MLFHS Helpdesk, drop in from 10.30am
10.30am – Peterloo 1-1 Sessions with MLFHS members – Book Now
11am – Peterloo Descendants Talk with Michala Hulme – Book Now
2pm – Masterclass, Tracing Peterloo Ancestors with Michala Hulme – Book Now

Queer
2019-07-16 16:00 - 19:00 | Performance Space
Manchester Histories are proud to present “Queer”, a platform showcasing some of the ways that LGBT+ communities and their allies have stood strong for protest, democracy and freedom of speech. We invite you to: hear the story of Manchester’s Clause 28 protest march, the history of one of the most important queer publications in Manchester, discover how archivists and activists have been using historical material to share LGBT+ heritage and much more.
Free – booking recommended

Peterloo Event Day
2019-07-17 10:30 - 15:00 | Performance Space
The Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society host a special Peterloo Event Day. From 10.30am – 12pm, Ed Glinert, Manchester tour guide, will speak about Peterloo. Ed has worked with Mike Leigh and also the great radical activist Paul Foot. Ed has been talking, walking, reading, thinking, sleeping, writing, giving lectures and guided tours about Peterloo for more than 30 years! So, this talk should be something special.
There will be lunch break featuring performances by Oakenhoof and Friends, a visit from a Rochdale based clogging group and some special friends.
In the afternoon we will be holding a special handling session with three ‘stations’ that can be visited including a cotton themed table; with a variety of cotton related archives, including sights and sounds from the cotton industry, The John Owen collection, Early Poor Law archives and a musical performance by the Free Radicals.
Keen to start researching to your own family tree? Have you discovered possible ancestors at Peterloo? Then why not visit the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society (MLFHS) Family History Help Desk and speak with one of our family history experts? Open throughout the day.

1819-1981 Exhibition
2019-07-18 09:00 - 17:00 | Performance Space
Linda Brogan, Excavating The Reno, who excavated the Reno cellar club in Moss Side MCR, and Manchester Histories have joined forces to present 1819 – 1981. This one day exhibition (running on Sat 15 June, Thurs 18 July and Tues 13 Aug) will tell the stories of the memoirs of police and communities from the 1981 Moss Side riots to give voice to the long dead 1819 Hulme Hussars and the Peterloo protesters.
At the end of each day people will be invited to have discussions about the issues provoked by the exhibition, and the Peterloo story of deprivation, laws, the people’s journey to fight for their rights, the conflict, aftermath, and how it relates to today.
Free – please drop in

Peterloo: Witnesses to a Massacre
2019-07-19 15:30 - 16:30 | Performance Space
Join the authors of the verbatim graphic novel ‘PETERLOO: Witnesses to a Massacre’ for an illustrated, behind the scenes look into the research, writing and art that went into this historically accurate and visually vivid account of the 1819 massacre of pro democracy reformers from around the Greater Manchester region.
‘This amazing artwork makes a powerful testimony’ Maxine Peake
‘A vivid and poignant retelling’ Tony Robinson
Free – pleae drop in

Saturday Spectacular
2019-07-20 13:00 - 16:00 | Media Lounge
Join us to make posters to mark the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre using pens, inks and quills. Join in with our board game challenge and much more.
Free – please drop in

The Riot Act
2019-07-20 13:30 - 16:00 | Performance Space
Written by Rob Johnston. On August 12th 1842, just 23 years after The Peterloo Massacre, Lancashire cotton-workers again marched in protest at appalling pay and conditions. Reaching Preston’s Lune Street the protesters were confronted by the authorities and read The Riot Act. A gripping mix of tragedy and humour from the WINNER of BEST DRAMA at Greater Manchester Fringe Festival 2017.
Performed in association with Greater Manchester Fringe Festival 2019.
“The Riot Act is a profoundly moving and poignant play” – North West End
1.30pm Performance – Book Now
3pm Performance – Book Now

Remembering Resistance: A Century of Women's Protest in the North of England
2019-07-23 12:00 - 17:00 | Performance Space
Remembering Resistance is bringing to life the history of women’s protest in the North of England.  The project is celebrating and cataloguing women’s efforts to bring about political change over the last 100 years by creating an archive of women’s activism to inspire future generations.
To ensure the voices of women who have been involved in protest are preserved, we are gathering accounts of protest actors, past and present. If you’ve been involved in campaigning and want to share your experiences, we would love to see you at our pop up event.
Here you will be able to record your stories, map the routes your protest took and help develop a timeline of women’s protest movements. The aim of the project is to inspire the next generation by celebrating women’s role in activism. We can’t do this without your stories, so do please get involved!

The Peaceful Weavers of Peterloo
2019-07-25 18:00 - 19:00 | Performance Space
An original production, written and performed by Charlotte Peters Rock, telling aspects of this important history, in songs and stories.
The legacy of The Peaceful Weavers of Peterloo, has continued unabated, over the last 200 years. They wanted to feed, clothe, safely house and educate themselves and their children.The weavers (and other reformers) wanted the vote and the right to effect change. They wanted certain work and fair pay for their hard work and skill. In peace, as families, they came in Sunday best. The Red Cap of Liberty was flourished. For Liberty, Freedom and Justice.
Free – no booking required

Retro Silent Disco
2019-07-26 20:00 - 2019-07-27 00:00 | Performance Space
GET UP, STAND UP, STRUT YOUR FUNKY STUFF!
The Retro Silent Disco is back by popular demand this July, Dance the night away in the brilliant Central Library to classic hits from the seventies, eighties and nineties. Bar open all evening.
Doors Open 8pm. 18 and over.

Peterloo Liberty Cap Workshop
2019-07-27 12:00 - 16:30 | Performance Space
Help revive the Peterloo liberty cap as a symbol of freedom and democracy by making your own with professional artists Paul Fitzgerald and Eva Schlunke.
These will then become part of a sea of raised liberty caps for a mass participation art event during the August 2019 Peterloo Bicentenary commemorations in Manchester.

A Black Kingdom May Take The Place Of The White One
2019-07-30 18:00 - 19:00 | Performance Space
‘A black kingdom may take the place of the white one’ – Henry Christophe I and The Kingdom of Hayti (1811-1820)
A talk by Marlene L. Daut, Associate Professor, University of Virginia.
On 1 January 1804, an army led by formerly enslaved Africans in the French colony of Saint-Domingue declared themselves independent and free of slavery forever. The leader of these revolutionaries, General Jean Jacques-Dessalines, had succeeded in defeating Napoléon Bonaparte’s famous army, the largest expedition to ever set sail from France. But in October 1806, Dessalines, who had declared himself to be the Emperor of the newly renamed Haiti, was assassinated by political rivals. Following this, the country would be divided into two separate states. General Henry Christophe established himself as president of the northern part of Haiti, while General Alexandre Pétion governed a completely separate republic in the southern and eventually the southwestern parts of Haiti. However, in March 1811, President Henry Christophe surprised everyone when he named himself King Henry I. Haiti’s first and only kingdom subsequently attracted the attention of the world.
As part of Manchester Histories 2019, this talk will explore how the leader of a modern black kingdom, 4,000 miles away from England, fought for and helped establish freedom for the Haitian people, in the same era of revolutionary upheaval and state violence that led to the Peterloo Massacre.
Free – booking recommended

The Road to Peterloo
2019-08-01 18:00 - 19:30 | Performance Space
Musical concert performance of street ballads written around the time of the Peterloo Massacre, telling the story of the underlying circumstances, the events of the day, and the aftermath. Songs are performed by folk musicians Pete Coe, Brian Peters and Laura Smyth, with a variety of acoustic instruments.

The International ArtActivistBarbie Flashmob Day
2019-08-03 10:00 - 16:00 | Performance Space
Come and see Central Library transformed into the International ArtActivistBarbie FLASHMOB DAY headquarters. Featuring “ArtActivistBarbie”, an activist who draws attention to inequality and injustice by posing in museums and galleries around the globe. See her work on Twitter @BarbieReports.
The space will live stream “ArtActivistBarbie” in action, as it happens across 72 countries. Everyone can post photographs of their activism on a special Twitter hashtag for the day.
“ArtActivistBarbie” workshops:
11am – 1pm – Book Now
2pm – 4pm – Book Now
You can also drop in and join the “ArtActivistBarbie” workshops to become an activist for the day. We will take “ArtActivistBarbie” into Manchester’s cultural spaces to pose for pictures, ask questions and make a comment. Feel free to bring your own activist doll along.
Led by an international collective of artists, educators and academics in partnership with NSEAD and InSEA (International Society for Education through Art). By activist Sarah Williamson, University of Huddersfield. With the support of Canadian Connections.
Photo: ArtActivistBarbie by Sarah Williamson
Free – no booking required

Peterloo Poems by Manchester People
2019-08-06 14:30 - 19:30 | Performance Space
Join us for this special event where we’ll have poets reading their own poems on the themes of Peterloo, with an audience to cheer them on.
Or if you are a mum with a young child bring them in the afternoon to our fun rhyming session ‘We’re Going to St Peters Fields.’
This event is organised by Seven Arches Publishing

The Song of Peterloo: A Performance
2019-08-08 17:00 - 19:00 | Performance Space
Carolyn O’Brien’s novel, The Song of Peterloo tells the powerful story of Manchester mill-worker, Nancy Kay. Desperate to provide for her ailing mother and sensitive son, Nancy is drawn into the agitation for reform. But as she risks everything to attend a great assembly on St Peter’s Field, Nancy is unaware the day will go down in history not as triumph, but as tragedy; the Peterloo massacre.
A result of a collaboration between Carolyn O’Brien and fellow Mancunians – composer, Shane Cullinan and soprano, Claire O’Brien – The Song of Peterloo: a Performance will combine readings from the novel with music from the time, together with newly-created work inspired by Nancy’s story and the brave reformers of 1819.
As the therapeutic power of music unites two of the novel’s central characters, the performers will be joined on piano by Brigitte Schwarting, a therapist from Nordoff Robbins, the national music therapy charity. The event is held in aid of this remarkable charity. Carolyn will be signing copies of the book after the performance.

In Conversation with Carolyn O’Brien
2019-08-10 14:00 - 16:00 | Performance Space
Carolyn O’Brien’s novel, The Song of Peterloo tells the powerful story of Manchester mill-worker, Nancy Kay. Desperate to provide for her ailing mother and sensitive son, Nancy is drawn into the agitation for reform. But as she risks everything to attend a great assembly on St Peter’s Field, Nancy is unaware the day will go down in history not as triumph, but as tragedy; the Peterloo massacre.
Carolyn will be in conversation explaining her inspiration for the novel and exploring its central theme of change, as well as taking questions and book-signing.
Carolyn was born and brought up in Manchester and studied English at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge before qualifying as a solicitor. Her short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies, magazines and on-line. The Song of Peterloo is her debut novel. It is published by Legend Press on 1 August 2019.
